NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 10 The Sermon at Benares

NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 10 The Sermon at Benares are part of NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English. Here we have given NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 10 The Sermon at Benares.

NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 10 The Sermon at Benares

TEXTUAL EXERCISES

BEFORE YOU READ (Page 133)
Activity

Use a dictionary or ask for your teacher’s help as you discuss the following questions in groups.

Question 1.
What is a sermon ? Is it different from a lecture or a talk ? Can this word also be used in a negative way or as a joke (as in “my mother’s sermon about getting my work done on time …”) ?
Answer:
A sermon is a ‘spoken or written address on a religious or moral subject’. It is a serious talk. It is different from a lecture or a talk. It is because a lecture or a talk can be on anything. A sermon has to be on religion or a moral subject.

This word can also be used in a negative way or as a joke. In that case it will mean a taunt, an irony or a sarcasm.

Question 2.
Find out the meanings of the words and phrases given in the box :
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Answer:
Afflicted with means affected with bodily or mental trouble.
Be composed means to be under mental control or at peace with self.
Desolation means in a ruined or neglected state.
Lamentation means expressing one’s sorrow or grieving.
Procure means to obtain, to get, to find etc.
Be subject to means to be under the effect of.

Question 3.
Have you heard of the Sermon on the Mount ? Who delivered it ? Who do you think delivered a sermon at Benares ?
Answer:
I think the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ was delivered by Lord Christ. ‘A Sermon at Benares’ was delivered by Gautama the Buddha. It was his first sermon after he got Enlightenment.

THINKING ABOUT THE TEXT
(Page 135)

Question 1.
When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for ? Does she get it ? Why not ?
Answer:
Gotami asks the people for a medicine. She does not get it because there is none to cure the dead. It is so because death is incurable.

Question 2.
Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house after she speaks with the Buddha. What does she ask for, the second time around ? Does she get it ? Why not ? (CBSE 2011, 2015)
Answer:
She asks for a handful of mustard seed. The Buddha tells her that he will cure her dead son. For that she should bring a handful of mustard seed. It must be brought from a house where death hasn’t occurred. She does not get it because she can’t find such a house where death has not occurred. Now she knows that death spares nobody who has been born.

Question 3.
What does Kisa Gotami understand the second time that she failed to understand the first time ? Was this what the Buddha wanted her to understand ?
Answer:
She now understands that death is inevitable. She thinks over the fate of men. Their lives are like the light of the city which flickers and extinguishes again. Yes, it is this truth that Gautama the Buddha wanted her to understand.

Question 4.
Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time ? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding ?
Answer:
She understood this only the second time. All families told her that there had occurred a death in their families. Then they asked her not to remind them of their deep grief. Buddha made her understand cleverly that death is inevitable to all.

Question 5.
How do you usually understand the idea of‘selfishness’ ? Do you agree with Kisa Gotami that she was being ‘selfish in her grief ’ ?
Answer:
By the idea 8f‘selfishness’ I understand thinking of oneself only. It is also of thinking of those things that concern one only. I agree with Kisa Gotami that she is selfish in her grief. She now understands that death is common to all. One who is born has to die one day. One should not grieve over a thing that is common to all.

THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE

I. This text is written in an old-fashioned style, for it reports an ……….
Answer:
No question as per CBSE examination paper.

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